I am a Southwest Airlines girl, pretty much born and raised. I have not flown another airline since probably 2008, not since I was bumped and forced to spend a night in O’Hare one Thanksgiving. Their points are amazing, their no-fluff no-stress seating and comedic flight attendants are just easy peasy. But Southwest doesn’t fly to the Virgin Islands. Delta does.
Round 1
After a freakishly quick 40 minutes in ATL on the train from gates E to A, we just barely made our connection as the doors were closing. We were informed that there was no space in the overhead bins for our tiny carry-ons. What! I paid for a ticket and therefore am entitled to space for one bag in the overhead bin! They whisked our bags away and I was LIVID when I saw available space as I got to my seat. I mean, people took off their jackets and put their bags from the gift shop up there. Husband had to calm me down. I’m sure he uttered something like “yeah so I’m thinking don’t let this ruin our honeymoon.” And I’m just so annoyed, because it’s a LIE. Inconveniencing me for what? A little smugness for the flight attendants? A win for Delta right there. We painstakingly packed light so we did not have to deal with baggage claim! Infuriating.
Round 2
Their second win came shortly after when I accidentally exited the plane without my library book. The NEW Danielle Steel I had waited for in the online library queue for weeks. I’m an idiot. This is 100% my fault that I left the book under the seat. However, I realized it mere minutes after I changed into flip-flops in the St. Thomas airport. I alerted the desk and they were not impressed that I could name my seat number and point to the plane that was still there hanging out on the runway! Surely the book could be recovered. Nope, gotta file a report on delta.com. Fine. Husband got another chance in the space of 3 hours to utter something along the lines of “so I’m thinking we don’t let the Danielle Steel book ruin our honeymoon.” It’s hard when your spouse is smarter than you are. Just this time. After that, I got weekly emails that Delta was totally dedicated to finding my item, but woopsie, it has not been recovered.
A Better Way Back
Fast forward 10 days later. This time our layover in ATL was a good 2.5 hours. This was reassuring in a way. We would have time to dine at One Flew South in E Wing. After a delectable meal, when we got to our gate, we saw that our connection was delayed 1 hour, and then within seconds, it was pushed back to almost 3 hours. My dear husband noticed that the adjacent gate was boarding for our city and we hightailed it over there, winding up behind 2 guys who had the same idea. My husband says you catch more flies with honey and boy was he right again. We were able to sweet talk our way onto this flight somehow (with the honey) and these poor people who had already been delayed 3 hours had to endure waiting for us new guys to get on and find a place for our bags.
It’s All Uphill From Here
So what do you think happened? Right-O, the flight attendant informed us that there was no room for one of our carry-ons so once again it was whisked away. This time we were totally cool with it because of all the lucky breaks we were getting. The 2 last seats on the plane that we skated onto were the ones with the most foot room next to the flight attendant’s seat. Deanna was a truly lovely woman serving our flight that day. During takeoff, we got to talking about our honeymoon and the gushy lovey story of how we met. She said, “Oh it’s your honeymoon? Let me see what I can do.” When the cart came around, we were offered free drinks, and were told that there was a spot in first class where our luggage was stowed so it didn’t have to get checked! THEN right before landing, Russell handed us this bottle of wine with a lovely note. From the Kathie Lee Gifford winery, fancy. I can see why they were giving it away. It was delicious anyway. So all in all, we exited the plane feeling pretty warm and fuzzy about Delta after all.